ABSTRACT
Writing in 2008, Jonathan Bate argued that in the aftermath of 9/11, Othello was ready for reinvention: “just as [one] reading lost its shine, a fresh interpretive emphasis emerged” (Bate 2008: 356). These new emphases can be seen in recent young adult novels set in the Global South. Shyam Selvadurai’s Swimming in the Monsoon Sea (2005), set in 1980s Sri Lanka, talks back to Shakespeare in ways that address local postcolonial performance and sexual identity, engaging South Asian politics of sexuality by putting the gendered bodies of young men at the forefront. Mal Peet’s Exposure (2009), set in a fictitious South American country, uses Othello to explore the issue of class, particularly in the street kids whose fates mix with wealthy celebrities and murderous politicians. Both novels point to Shakespeare’s global reach and reinvent their Shakespearean source text by de-emphasizing race.
